Hard-to-hoop items: bags, beanies, and baby clothes

Hoop the stabilizer, not the item, whenever the item is too thick, too stretchy, or too small to clamp between two rings without damage. That is called floating. It is the answer for a thick knit beanie, a piece smaller than your hoop, and any bag your hoop will not close over. Say no when the design would sit over a zipper, a thick seam, a stiff board, or a lining you cannot get behind.

What floating is and when to use it

Floating hoops only the stabilizer, drum tight, then holds the item on top with adhesive, pins, or a basting stitch. Sewing Machine Fun's tutorial on floating fabric lists the reasons you reach for it: fabric too thick or bulky to fit in the hoop, fabric too delicate to hoop without damage, and blanks smaller than the hoop.

The one failure that gets floated pieces is weight. If the rest of the item hangs off the machine arm, gravity pulls it loose from the stabilizer mid-run. Hooping Station's hoop vs float write-up says it plainly: hold the weight up.

Hoop marks are the other reason to float. Velvet and terry cloth can hold a ring where the hoop crushed the pile. Embroidery Legacy's hoop burn article steams the mark out afterward. To stop the mark before it happens, it floats the piece or hoops a mask over the fabric, cut like the mat in a picture frame. What to tell a customer about hoop marks before you stitch is in my guide to questions to ask before you stitch.

A magnetic hoop changes a lot of this. The top ring snaps onto the bottom with magnets instead of a screw, so it closes over a thick bag or a folded cuff that a screw hoop never would. I run Mighty Hoops on my Melco, so most of my bags get hooped. My terry towels go in the same magnetic hoop, with two layers of tearaway underneath and a water-soluble topping clamped in with the towel.

Tote bags and backpacks

A canvas tote is the easiest of the three. The bag is a tube, so the hoop goes inside it. Open the bag, slide the bottom ring in under the front panel, lay your stabilizer over the ring, then set the top ring on from outside. Hooping Station's canvas tote walk-through does the same and puts cutaway under the canvas. Embroidery Library's tote tutorial calls for medium weight cutaway too, which is what I use.

Finding the center is where totes go wrong. A boxed bottom is not part of the front, so do not split the bag's full height. Embroidery Legacy's tote guide folds the bag in half both ways and uses the creases. I measure down from the top edge instead, because the top edge is what a person sees when the bag is carried. On the canvas totes I stitched this fall, the lettering sat 2.25 inches down from the top edge, centered across an 18 inch wide bag.

Keep the design clear of the bottom seam and the side seams on any bag. Backpacks are harder because of the hardware. Hoop Talent's backpack guide says to stay off zippers, pockets, and thick seams, to trace the design path on the machine before stitching so the needle never meets a zipper, and to hoop the bag upside down if you have to. A kid's backpack with one flat front panel is a fine job. A backpack whose front zipper runs halfway down into the panel you would stitch is not.

This summer I stitched two coated ripstop nylon backpacks for one family, both their own bags. The second ran in a 5.5 by 5.5 inch magnetic hoop with two layers of no-show mesh underneath, a 75/11 sharp needle, no spray, and no topping. It ran at 650 stitches a minute and stitched clean. I wrote that setup down the same day. My guide to thread color records covers keeping that kind of record.

Knit beanies

A beanie stretches in every direction. Every bit you stretch it while hooping comes back as a puckered design once the hat relaxes. Sewing Machine Fun's beanie guide uses no-show mesh cutaway underneath, a water-soluble topping so the stitches do not sink into the rib, and a 75/11 embroidery needle, with a ballpoint needle as the swap if the stitches look rough. Hoop Talent's beanie article floats it: hoop only the stabilizer, then hold the beanie to it with temporary spray or pins. Either way the knit is never stretched between two rings.

The folded cuff is where most beanie designs go. The trick on a multi-needle machine is to turn the beanie inside out and hoop it upside down, so the cuff is the only layer in the field while the rest of the hat hangs clear of the needle. Hooping Station's inside-out beanie routine on a Melco shows the whole sequence with a magnetic hoop. It also calls a folded cuff thick and fairly stable, and says a good tearaway is enough for a design under 5,000 stitches. My cutaway and tearaway guides cover which one to pick.

Baby bodysuits and baby clothes

A baby bodysuit is small. The back of the embroidery also sits against skin. Sewing Machine Fun's bodysuit guide uses fusible no-show mesh ironed to the inside of the garment, because it is sheer enough not to shadow through a thin white knit, with a water-soluble topping and a 75/11 needle. Embroidery Legacy's bodysuit steps add an optional soft fusible layer over the finished back to keep it from irritating the baby's skin.

The fused mesh is what makes a bodysuit hoopable. The same guide hoops a regular snap-crotch bodysuit, taut with no stretch in the knit, and says floating one rarely stitches right. It saves floating for the side-snap style that opens flat. A small hoop leaves less loose fabric to move. Whatever is left gets held back with tape, clips, or pins, placed where the embroidery foot cannot catch them.

The design on a baby garment should be small and light. That guide says a thin bodysuit cannot hold a dense fill design, which puckers and feels rough against a baby's skin. If a customer brings a design that is too big for the garment, say so and offer a smaller version before you stitch.

What the extra setup does to the price

A hard-to-hoop item takes more setup time. My price already has a line for that: a $5 hooping fee on every placement. Floating is still one hooping, so a floated beanie carries the same $5 as a hooped sweatshirt. A bag with a name on the front and a monogram on the pocket is two hoopings, so two $5 lines. My formula also has a complexity line, $3 to $15, for caps, sleeves, and tricky fabric. I use it only when the item is truly harder at the machine, never just because the piece belongs to the customer. A plain canvas tote hooped flat takes no complexity charge. The whole formula is in my guide to how to price machine embroidery. The free pricing calculator does the arithmetic with a hooping count you can change.

Most of these items arrive as the customer's own piece. My guide to embroidering customer-supplied garments covers the blank, the agreement, and testing the fabric.

In Broidry, the hooping fee is one line on the rate card, labeled Hooping, charged once per placement. In the quote builder the number of hoopings on an item follows the number of designs on it. Customer supplies the garment takes the blank charge off when the bag or the beanie is theirs. When an item earns a complexity charge, it goes in the Complexity (per item) box on that item. Each design's own page has a notes box with fill-in lines for stabilizer, hooping, and needle, so the reorder starts from a record instead of a memory.

When to say no

• The design would sit over a zipper, a pocket seam, or a thick side seam.
• There is a stiff board or a padded panel behind the placement that cannot be pulled out of the way.
• The item is fully lined with no opening behind the placement, so the hoop would have to clamp the lining too.
• The item is thick enough that a standard hoop will not close over it, with no magnetic hoop in the right size on your shelf.
• The design is too big for the flat area the item actually has. A 5 inch logo on a 4 inch cuff is a no before anything else is.

When I turn down the item, I still offer the customer the same design on a blank I can hoop, or a smaller design that fits the piece they brought.

The short version

Float anything too thick, too delicate, or too small to clamp. Keep the item's weight off the machine arm. Totes get the hoop inside the bag with cutaway underneath, measured down from the top edge. Beanies get no-show mesh or tearaway by design, a topping, and inside-out, upside-down hooping on the cuff. Baby clothes get fusible no-show mesh, a small hoop, a soft backing against the skin, and a small design. Charge your normal hooping fee per placement, plus a complexity charge only when the item is truly harder at the machine. When a zipper, a seam, a board, or a lining is in the way, say no to the item and offer a blank instead.